Tornadoes · United States · Ohio · 2010

EF0 tornado, Lima, Ohio, June 11, 2010

This EF0 tornado ran 0.1 miles across Allen County on June 11, 2010, touching down at 5:33 PM EDT and reaching 25 yards wide. It killed nobody.

The rating scale

Tracks are drawn in the color of the rating. The Enhanced Fujita scale rates the damage rather than measuring the wind: the speeds are what that damage is taken to imply.

  1. EF065 to 85 mphthis tornado

    Light damage. Surface peeled off some roofs, gutters and siding damaged, branches broken, shallow-rooted trees pushed over.

  2. EF186 to 110 mph

    Moderate damage. Roofs badly stripped, mobile homes overturned or badly damaged, exterior doors lost, windows broken.

  3. EF2111 to 135 mph

    Considerable damage. Roofs torn off well-built houses, frame homes shifted on their foundations, mobile homes destroyed, large trees snapped or uprooted, cars lifted off the ground.

  4. EF3136 to 165 mph

    Severe damage. Whole stories of well-built houses destroyed, large buildings badly damaged, trains overturned, trees debarked, heavy cars lifted and thrown.

  5. EF4166 to 200 mph

    Devastating damage. Well-built houses leveled, structures with weak foundations moved some distance, cars thrown and large missiles generated.

  6. EF5over 200 mph

    Incredible damage. Strong frame houses swept off their foundations, car-sized missiles thrown more than 100 meters, steel-reinforced concrete badly damaged, high-rise buildings deformed.

  7. Unrated

    The survey recorded a tornado but could not put a number on it, most often because it crossed open country and damaged nothing a rating can be read from.

The record

Rating
EF0
Date
June 11, 2010
Touchdown
5:33 PM EDT (21:33 UTC)
Lifted
5:34 PM EDT (21:34 UTC)
On the ground
1 minutes
Path length
0.1 miles (0.2 km)
Path width
25 yards (23 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
County
Allen County
Touchdown point
40.746, -84.130
Lift-off point
40.748, -84.128
Record number
1006111533-01

What the Weather Service recorded

Weak shear allowed for an isolated thunderstorm to produce a brief tornado that touched down over an open field and dissipated.

The broadcast media relayed eyewitness reports of a weak, short-lived circulation that briefly touched down near the intersection of Kenilworth Avenue and Rice Avenue. Despite the touchdown, the only damage observed in the area was the blowing around of a trampoline. The circulation dissipated northwest of the intersection of Rice Avenue and Cole Street.

From NOAA NCEI's Storm Events Database, the narrative the local forecast office wrote for Storm Data.

The warnings

No tornado warning for this county appears in the archive as in force at the moment the tornado touched down. One was issued for the county at another hour that day.

Issued (UTC)ExpiredProductOffice
21:40 UTC22:01 UTCTornado WarningIWX
00:00 UTC12:39 UTCFlash Flood WatchIWX

Every warning and watch covering the touchdown point that day, from the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of National Weather Service products. Lead time is measured from the issue of the warning in force to the touchdown time in the database, both of which were recorded to the minute by different people.

The forecast that day

The Storm Prediction Center had this point in a General Thunderstorms Risk. The outlook in force was issued at 20:00 UTC.

SPC's Day 1 convective outlook as it stood when the tornado began, read at the touchdown point. The same archive is on the radar archive.

The air that afternoon

The radiosonde launches on either side of the tornado, from the nearest station that was launching then, drawn and analyzed the way Storm Lab does: the same diagram, the same parcel and shear definitions SPC's mesoanalysis uses.

Cncnati-Daytn, OH (KILN), 12:00Z

9.6 hours before the tornado, 149 km from the path. June 11, 2010.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Cncnati-Daytn, OH at 12:00Z on 2010-06-11Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 136 joules per kilogram, CIN -87, lifted condensation level 1042 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCLLFCEL10008507005003002001001 km2 km3 km6 km9 km12 km15 km-30°-20°-10°0°10°20°30°40°
Temperature in red, dew point in green, the mixed-layer parcel dashed. The warm shading is its CAPE, the cool shading the inhibition it has to break through.
HodographHodograph, Cncnati-Daytn, OH at 12:00Z on 2010-06-11The wind through the lowest 10 kilometers as a curve, rings every 10 meters per second labeled in knots. Zero to 1 km storm-relative helicity 91 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 32 knots.1939Sfc1 km3 km6 km9 kmRMLM
The wind turning with height, colored by layer: ground to 1 km, 1 to 3 km, 3 to 6 km, 6 to 10 km. RM and LM are the right and left moving storms Bunkers' method gives; the shaded area is the 0 to 1 km storm-relative helicity.
Mixed-layer CAPE
136 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-87 J/kg
Surface CAPE
0 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
1042 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
32 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
14 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
91 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
107 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.8
0-3 km lapse rate
4.1 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

Cncnati-Daytn, OH (KILN), 00:00Z

2.4 hours after it, 149 km from the path. June 12, 2010.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Cncnati-Daytn, OH at 00:00Z on 2010-06-12Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 1743 joules per kilogram, CIN -5, lifted condensation level 1109 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCLEL10008507005003002001001 km2 km3 km6 km9 km12 km15 km-30°-20°-10°0°10°20°30°40°
Temperature in red, dew point in green, the mixed-layer parcel dashed. The warm shading is its CAPE, the cool shading the inhibition it has to break through.
HodographHodograph, Cncnati-Daytn, OH at 00:00Z on 2010-06-12The wind through the lowest 10 kilometers as a curve, rings every 10 meters per second labeled in knots. Zero to 1 km storm-relative helicity 33 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 13 knots.1939Sfc1 km3 km6 km9 kmRMLM
The wind turning with height, colored by layer: ground to 1 km, 1 to 3 km, 3 to 6 km, 6 to 10 km. RM and LM are the right and left moving storms Bunkers' method gives; the shaded area is the 0 to 1 km storm-relative helicity.
Mixed-layer CAPE
1743 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-5 J/kg
Surface CAPE
2658 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
1109 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
13 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
12 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
33 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
83 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.0
0-3 km lapse rate
6.6 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The surface observations

Lima (AOH), 10 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

Time (UTC)Temp (°F)Dew point (°F)WindGust (kt)Pressure (mb)Weather
19:53 UTC8374120° 6 kt1016.6
20:53 UTC8375120° 8 kt1016.3
21:17 UTC78.875.290° 10 kt1015.6-TSRA BR
21:45 UTC73.469.8 3 kt1017.3TS
21:53 UTC717080° 7 kt1017.3TS BR

From the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of airport observations.

The radar

The Northern Indiana radar (KIWX), 148 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 21:34 UTC.

Open the radar archive at this moment, over the track

Reflectivity and velocity, decoded from the Level II archive in the browser. Volumes take a few seconds to open the first time.

What was reported nearby

Local storm reports within 60 km of the path, in the three hours either side.

Time (UTC)ReportWhereCountyRemark
21:33 UTCTORNADO1 Wnw LimaAllen, OHA WEAK AND SHORTLIVED EF0 TORNADO TOUCHED DOWN ON THE NW SIDE OF LIMA NEAR THE INTERSECTION OF KENILWORTH AVE AND RICE AVE. THE ONLY DAMAGE REPORTED WAS TO A TRAMPOLINE.
21:35 UTCFUNNEL CLOUDLimaAllen, OH
21:45 UTCFUNNEL CLOUDColumbus GrovePutnam, OH
21:45 UTCTSTM WND DMGLimaAllen, OHLIGHT POLE DAMAGED AT INTERSECTION OF METCALF AND ELM
22:07 UTCHAIL 0.881 N KentonHardin, OH
22:23 UTCTSTM WND DMG1 Sw ZanesfieldLogan, OHONE TREE DOWNED.
23:03 UTCFLOODBellefontaineLogan, OHHIGH WATER ON AREA ROADS IN CITY AND ACROSS CENTRAL PARTS OF THE COUNTY.

From the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of National Weather Service local storm reports.

This ground now

The live radar over the trackEvery 2010 tornado in OhioEvery tornado in Ohio since 1950Warnings in force in Ohio nowThe forecast where you are

The other tornadoes of June 11, 2010

9 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
June 115:27 PM MDTEF0Elbert, CO0.150
June 117:10 PM MDTEF0Lincoln, CO0.150
June 118:15 PM CDTEF1Sheridan, KS3.550$100,000
June 118:17 PM CDTEF0Sheridan, KS0.225
June 119:00 PM CDTEF0Sheridan, KS0.725
June 119:00 PM CDTEF0Sheridan, KS0.725
June 1110:03 PM CDTEF0Gosper, NE0.120
June 1112:00 AM CDTEF0Lincoln, NE0.110
June 1112:15 AM CDTEF0Lincoln, NE0.110

What this means

Ratings are the survey's, read off the damage rather than measured; the rating scale is above. Tornado counts rise through the record as reporting improved, so a year in the 1950s is not comparable with one today except for the strongest tornadoes, which were always noticed.

Sources

NOAA Storm Prediction Center tornado database, 1950-2025, the official record kept by NOAA's Storm Prediction Center.